Picks and Pans Review: An All-Star Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly

Showtime (Mon., Sept. 26, 10 p.m. ET) In this dry and greedy time it is nice—even uplifting—to see tribute being paid to good people like folk legends Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. Guthrie's son Arlo, Emmylou Harris, John Mellencamp, Taj Mahal, Pete Seeger, Little Richard, Bono, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson sing wonderful renditions of Hobo's Lullaby, Rock Island Line, Bourgeois Blues, Goodnight Irene and Vigilante Man. And Bob Dylan—admitting that "I was like a Woody Guthrie jukebox"—sings a song about his mentor. Some of the numbers in the show are also in A Vision Shared, a new album that will help pay for a Guthrie collection at the Smithsonian. But only on the show can you hear Arlo and Emmylou singing Deportee, a great Guthrie song. And only on the show can you see the goose bump-inspiring finale when Arlo sings along with his father, via overdubbing, on This Land Is Your Land.